Two new awards for Northwich mines stabilisation project


The groundbreaking Northwich Mines Stabilisation Project has won two highly prestigious awards for its imaginative solution to filling the enormous abandoned mines below the town.

This project is the largest of its kind in the world and last year scooped three separate awards for its innovation. The new accolades will be added to a brimming awards cabinet for the project.

The latest awards are; the ICE North West Merit Award for 2008, which recognised the project for its "excellence and imaginative concepts" and the Ground Engineering Sustainability Award 2008, which recognised its "technologically advanced engineering".
Awards for Northwich Mines Stabilisation Project

This project has involved the infilling of four brine-filled mines to ensure the future stability of 32 hectares of the town centre - an area 44 times the size of Wembley Stadium. It is the first time in the UK that a grout using pulverised fuel ash - a recycled waste product - has been mixed with brine to infill a flooded salt mine.

Lead Councillor for Area Working and Regeneration, Cllr Herbert Manley, said: "When we first started infilling the mines the grout had never been used on such a large scale so we were delighted to finish on time and to budget. In fact, the results are better than we could have imagined, and our practices have set a precedent for other work of its kind across the globe.

"Now the project is complete we are in a much stronger position to encourage investment in the town centre and really help the Northwich Vision project to transform the town"

The Northwich Vision regeneration scheme is expected to attract private sector investment totalling £200 million at Baron's Quay as well as a further £100 million in the wider area. The site will deliver over 55,740 square metres of retail, leisure and office facilities, up to 300 new homes and create 2,000 new jobs.

The Vision is a regeneration partnership including English Partnerships and Vale Royal Borough Council.

Wrekin Construction was commissioned to complete the infilling of the abandoned salt mines by Vale Royal Borough Council after the authority was awarded £28.9 million from the English Partnerships Land Stabilisation Programme.

Interesting facts:

A total of four mines have been filled under Northwich town centre.

  • Neumanns mine is the smallest and is approximately half a football pitch in area and is equivalent volume to six Olympic size swimming pools.
  • Penny's Lane is larger - the volume of 12 Olympic size pools and just less than a football pitch in area.
  • Witton Bank is much bigger - the size of six-and-a-half football pitches and the volume of 100 pools.
  • Baron's Quay is the largest by far - it has the surface area of 14 football pitches and requires the filling equivalent to 200 Olympic size pools.

The infilling has involved the removal of one million tonnes of brine from beneath the town.